Hacking
The Hacking is the process of the Infiltrator class co-opting equipment at enemy-controlled bases. To hack a terminal or turret, walk up to it and hold your «Interact» key (default: ). All infiltrators are able to hack, and the speed can be increased through certing into the Advanced Equipment Terminal Hacking tree. However, destroyed equipment cannot be hacked. If you are inside a turret when it is hacked, you will immediately be ejected from it. In order to return a terminal or turret to your side, it must be either destroyed and repaired, or hacked by an infiltrator on your side. While hacking, you will see an icon on your HUD similar to the one on the left. It will also include a ring around it that symbolizes overall hack time, and how much you have completed at any given moment. Increasing certs towards your Advanced Equipment Terminal Hacking as an Infiltrator will decrease the overall time needed to hack a device. See the below certification table for more information. Once device control hacking is initiated, one is able to move, look and shoot freely provided the hacker keeps within ~0.5m of the device, and provided the the 'use' key (default: ) is held down'' during the whole duration of the hack.'' (Objective device "hacking" (overload shield generator, SCU, etc), as any class, works in the same way.) Most of the time, it is also possible to hack by pressing and releasing the 'use' key quickly, without having to hold it. This is extremely useful for any Infiltrator in a low- to high-population area, as it allows him/her to look around freely during the full duration of the hack. Hacking, more specifically the initiation thereof, seems to be done serverside and not clientside, probably for verification reasons. This means there's a smaller to larger delay (~0.5 to 2-3 secs) after decloaking before a hack can actually be started (and additionally the indicator shows up after an additional small delay). The problem with this arises from the fact that if the hack key is pressed and held before this delay runs out, no hack will be initiated! And the player will have wasted ~5s or more before realising this. Sometimes, when doing several actions quickly (like quickly initiating a hack after decloaking and quickly turning away), then again facing the device supposedly being hacked, there's no visible hacking indicator, however most times the hack is ongoing and will finish if use key is held. Both cases can be avoided by decloaking a couple meters away, calmly facing the device, holding the use key and waiting for the indicator to appear before turning away. These are likely the same problems as when taking a Medical-kit and cloaking shortly after, resulting in not receiving the heal. The only thing to do (short of the devs reprogramming some stuff) is to familiarise oneself with the different quirks and working around them, e.g. by delaying an action to wait out a delay. Example of Hacking Below is an example of a Phalanx Anti-Vehicle turret being hacked (skip to 2:40): See Also *Advanced Equipment Terminal Hacking Category:Infiltrator Category:Article stubs Category:Mechanics